US3643415A

US3643415A - Flyers

Info

Publication number: US3643415A
Application number: US19789A
Authority: US
Inventors: John K P Mackie
Original assignee: James Mackie and Sons Ltd
Current assignee: James Mackie and Sons Ltd
Priority date: 1969-03-18
Filing date: 1970-03-16
Publication date: 1972-02-22
Anticipated expiration: 1989-02-22
Also published as: BR7017539D0; CS162708B2; SU533328A3; DE2012199A1; BE747478A; ES377614A1; GB1310521A; FR2035027B1; FR2035027A1

Abstract

A device for winding packages of synthetic plastic tape includes a member for controlling the lay of the tape which is designed to overcome the problems of the ridging normally encountered. The device may comprise a part which is traversed in relation to a rotary support or may be a flyer driven round the axis of a stationary support in which case the member is in the form of a finger which has at its package-engaging end a tape guide on its outer surface for controlling the lateral movement of the tape and on its inner surface directly opposite the tape guide an inwardly projecting nose portion shaped for engaging the surface of the package over a width less than that of the tape guide. The end of the finger adjacent the nose portion is capable of elastic displacement, preferably resulting from the resilience of the finger itself, in a direction axial of the package in relation to its support by a distance equal to at least half the width of the tape guide. If ridging starts the nose portion will engage the intervening depressions to wind tape in the depressions and as a result of the elastic displacement will tend to dwell for a short period in each depression until it jumps to the next depression. In this way a smooth surfaced package is formed.

Description

lll'ite lites athl Maclrie [151 5,6d3,dl

[72] Inventor: John K. 1?. Maclkie, Belfast, Northern Ireland [22] Filed: Mar. 16,1970

[21] Appl.No.: 119,789

352,937 4/1961 Switzerland .57/117 Primary Examiner-John Petrakes Att0rneyLarson, Taylor and Hinds [57] STCT A device for winding packages of synthetic plastic tape includes a member for controlling the lay of the tape which is designed to overcome the problems of the ridging normally encountered. The device may comprise a part which is traversed in relation to a rotary support or may be a flyer driven round the axis of a stationary support in which case the member is in the form of a finger which has at its package-engaging end a tape guide on its outer surface for controlling the lateral movement of the tape and on its inner surface directly opposite the tape guide an inwardly projecting nose portion shaped for engaging the surface of the package over a width less than that of the tape guide. The end of the finger adjacent the nose portion is capable of elastic displacement, preferably resulting from the resilience of the finger itself, in a direction axial of the package in relation to its support by a distance equal to at least half the width of the tape guide. if n'dging starts the nose portion will engage the intervening depressions to wind tape in the depressions and as a result of the elastic displacement will tend to dwell for a short period in each depression until it jumps to the next depression. In this way a smooth surfaced package is formed.

7 Claims, 3 Drawing ll igures lFLYlElkS This invention relates to the winding of packages of synthetic plastic tape. This can be achieved either by rotating a support for the package and traversing, in relation to this support, a member for controlling the lay of the tape, or by winding the tape on a nonrotary support by means of a flyer driven round the axis of the support while relative axial traversing motion takes place between the flyer and the support. The latter method is described in our US. Pat. No. 3,449,901 which sets out the necessary conditions to ensure that the twist which is applied to the tape as a result of the revolution of the flyer is represented in the resultant package by localized folds spaced apart by relatively long lengths of untwisted tape. The invention will be described primarily in connection with a flyer for use in the second of the two methods referred to, but is equally applicable to a device for use in the first of the two methods.

In order to control the traversing movement of the tape in relation to the surface of the package when using a flyer, the member for controlling the lay of the tape takes the form of a finger which extends into contact with the surface of the package and which is biased inwardly so as to overcome the effects of centrifugal force. As shown in the specification referred to above this finger takes the form of a light arm which is pivoted to the body of the flyer. The tape to be wound passes over the end of the finger immediately before being laid on the package and to provide accurate control of the axial position of the tape the finger needs to be provided with a tape guide which may be in the form of a notch, only slightly wider than the tape itself Even with this form of control it is difiicult to build a uniform package. Owing to its width the turns of tape cannot lie side by side in the same manner as yarn but tend to overlap one another. Under certain circumstances it is found that this leads to a ridged formation of package and once such ridging has started during the initial stages of the building of the package it then tends to become accentuated as the package grows larger. While it is possible to theorize on the reasons for this ridging, such theories have no relevance to the present invention which merely takes this observed fact as its starting point. A similar problem occurs when the package itself is rotated and the member for controlling the lay of the tape is itself traversed.

According to the present invention the member for con trolling the lay of the tape has at its package-engaging end and on the outer surface a tape guide for controlling the lateral movement of the tape and, on its inner surface directly opposite the tape guide, an inwardly projecting nose portion shaped for engaging the surface of the package over a width less than that of the tape guide. in addition the end of the member adjacent the nose portion is capable of elastic displacement in a direction axial of the package in relation to its support by a distance equal to at least half the width of the tape guide.

As a result of this construction, if ridges start to form on the surface of the package the nose portion on the member will engage the intervening depressions (since it is found in practice that these are normally at least as wide as the width of the tape and hence of the tape guide on the member) and this will tend to prevent the end of the member following the relative traversing motion between the member and the package. In other words the end of the member will tend to dwell for a short period in each depression and since the tape guide is immediately opposite the nose portion this dwell will usually be sufficient to cause at least one extra turn of tape to be wound in the depression and 1m tend to counteract the effect of ridging.

The displacement of the end of the member will cause an elastic restoring force which will gradually increase, and this, in combination with reduction of the contact area on the side of the nose portion caused by outward movement of the nose portion due to winding of the tape in the depression, releases the member which then returns to its equilibrium position in relation to its support until it engages the next depression. In this way the traversing movement of the end of the member in relation to the surface of the package is periodically delayed for short periods during which the tape is wound in the depressions rather than on the ridges and in this way the effect of ridging is counteracted so as to give a. much smoother surface to the package as a whole. This is a major advantage because the formation of ridges has been found to cause considerable difficulty in the subsequent unwinding of the package.

The axial displacement of the end of the member is preferably achieved as a result of resilience of the member itself but it is also possible for the member to be rigid and the displacement to be achieved, for example, by permitting elastic yielding of the support for the member. The requirement that the member should be capable of yielding by a distance of at least half the width of the tape guide ensures that the nose portion will remain in a depression until the dis placement is sufficiently great to ensure that as soon as the nose moves out of the depression the next turn of winding will occur, not on the adjacent ridge, but in the next intervening depression. Consequently if ridging of the surface of the package once starts, the smooth relative traversing motion is converted into a stepwise motion of the end of the member. the nose portion moving from depression to depression until these have been filled in sufficiently to allow the nose portion to travel smoothly over the surface of the package without being impeded.

As previously mentioned the tape guide needs to be very slightly wider than the tape to be wound and since this guide receives a considerable amount of wear from the tape it needs to be formed of wear resistant material. Preferably therefore the end of the member is formed by a hardened steel pin which is cranked to define the nose portion for engaging the package and is formed on the opposite side with a notch defining the tape guide. Thus the finger may be formed as a moulding of plastic with the steel pin forming an extension of this moulding.

When the device is in the form of a flyer, the member is constituted by a finger which needs to be biased inwardly to overcome the effects of centrifugal force. In order to provide the inward bias the finger may be mounted to turn about a spindle forming part of its support and may be acted on by a coil spring which encircles the spindle and applies the bias.

Generally speaking the winding device may be required to wind a number of different widths of tape and the tape guide needs to have a width to match each different tape. If the finger is formed as a plastic moulding and is mounted to turn about a spindle as just described the moulding may have a slot at its end for fitting over and gripping the spindle so that the finger is readily removable from its support to permit interchangeability. When changing from one width of tape to another it is then merely a question of removing one finger and replacing it by another fitted with a tape guide of the appropriate width.

A construction of winding device in accordance with the invention will now be described in the form of a flyer by way of example with reference to the accompanying drawings in which:

FIG. l is an elevation showing the upper portion of a package being wound and the lower portion of a fiyer fitted with a finger for guiding the tape onto the surface of the package, part of the flyer being broken away for purposes of illustration;

FIG. 2 is a detailed perspective view to a somewhat larger scale showing the finger of FIG. l removed from its support; and,

H0. 3 is a view of part of the surface of the package seen in a tangential direction and illustrating the end of the finger bearing against the surface of the package.

Turning first to FIG. l a package indicated generally as l is shown as being wound with synthetic plastic tape 2 while mounted on a nonrotatable support 3. For this purpose a flyer is used of which the lower part is indicated at ii and which is similar in operation to that described in the earlier specification mentioned above except that instead of enclosing the top of the package 1 the flyer is of an open work construction comprising a flanged ring 6 supported by spaced rods 7 which are broken away in the drawing but converge upwardly to a common top portion. At the left-hand side as seen in FIG. 1 the flange of the ring 6 is extended downwardly at 8 to form a support for a finger 11 for guiding the tape 2 onto the surface of the package 1. It is the construction and mounting of this finger which constitutes the subject matter of the present invention.

The main body portion of the finger 11 comprises a moulding 12 of nylon or other similar plastic. At the innermost end where it engages the surface of the package 1 the body 12 has an extension 13 which is formed by a hardened steel pin cranked as best seen in FIG. 3 to form a wide-angled V. The apex of the V constitutes a nose portion 14 on the inner surface of the finger while on its outer surface immediately opposite the nose portion 14 is a slot 15 which constitutes a guide for the tape 2 and is consequently slightly wider than the tape for this purpose.

FIG. 2 shows the finger l1 removed from its support which comprises a vertical spindle extending between the ring 6 and a part 21 projecting from the part 8 of the flange of the ring 6. The spindle 20 is encircled by a coiled spring 22 of which the upper end is anchored and the lower end is formed with an extending portion 23 which engages the finger 11 to bias it inwardly against the surface of the package 1. As best seen from FIG. 2 the outer end of the finger 11 is formed with a slot 26 which broadens out into a partially circular portion 27 which encircles and grips the spindle 20 owing to the resilience of the material. The outer end of the finger 11 extends on the far side of the spindle 20 at 28 and is formed with an upwardly extending stud 29 which acts as a counterweight which helps to compensate for the effects of centrifugal force on the finger 11 during operation. As can be seen from FIG. 1 which shows the finger 11 in its assembled position the effect of centrifugal force on the main body of the lever is to swing it outwardly against the bias applied by the spring 22. The outward force on the portion 28 and the counterweight 29 produces an opposite turning moment about the spindle 20 to have a compensating effect. The tape 2 is led downwardly from the top of the flyer, around a guide runner 32 and thence through the guide notch I5 onto the surface of the package I where it is being wound.

As can be seen from both FIGS. 1 and 3 the surface of the package 1 below the winding point illustrated is shown with a series of small ridges. The package is in its upward reciprocating stroke and the portion above the winding point is shown as relatively smooth, the depressions having been filled in by the action of the finger 11 already described. To recapitulate briefly the nose portion 14 is located within a depression between adjacent ridges as seen best in FIG. 3 and as the package 1 continues its upward relative movement the nose portion 14 tends to dwell in this depression, this action being permitted by the resilience of the finger 11. The finger 11 is capable of resilient distortion so as to permit displacement of the nose portion 14 by a distance rather greater than that between a depression and the next adjacent ridge. As already mentioned the distance between successive ridges is found to be at least as wide as the width of the tape so that the distance between a depression and the ridge is rather more than half the width of the tape, that is to say, rather more than half the width of the tape guide i5. As the package moves upwardly the stress in the finger 11 is increased until a point is reached when it moves abruptly into the next lower depression. During the period of time while it remains in the depression shown in FIG. 3 perhaps two or three turns of the tape will have been wound which will tend to fill the depression and lead to an even surface on the package and this process is repeated in succession for each depression so that all the tape is wound in the depressions rather than on the ridges and the surface is progressively evened out. The depth of the depressions is exaggerated in FIGS. 1 and 3 for purposes of illustration because it will be urderstood that the smoothing action just described occurs throughout the building of the package so that there is no opportunity for the ridges to reach the size illustrated. Ridges of the size illustrated are generally typical of the configuration obtained with previous winding arrangements but with an arrangement in accordance with the invention any tendency towards the formation of ridges is automatically counteracted in the manner just described.

The flyer illustrated may need to be used with a number of different widths of tape which require correspondingly differing widths of tape guide 15. For this purpose interchangeable fingers are used fitted with tape guides of different widths corresponding to the tapes to be wound. By virtue of the construction seen most clearly in FIG. 2 each finger Ill may be readily removed from its spindle 20 and may then be replaced by a similar finger having a tape guide of a different width. On a multiple machine having a relatively large number of flyers such as that illustrated it is a simple matter to interchange a complete set of fingers so as to convert for use with a different width of tape.

1 claim:

1. A device for use in winding packages of a flat tape such as synthetic plastic tape or the like including a member for controlling the lay of the tape on to the surface of the package and a support for said member, said member having a package-engaging end which has on its outer surface at said end a tape guide means for controlling lateral movement of said tape of a given width and said member having on its inner surface directly opposite said tape guide means, an inwardly projecting nose portion, means for causing said nose portion to engage the surface of said package over a width less than said given width of said tape guide, elastic means for permitting said package-engaging end of said member to be displaced elastically in a direction axial of said package in relation to said support by a distance equal to at least half the said width of said tape guide.

2. A device according to claim I, in which said member itself is sufficiently resilient to permit said elastic displacement and hence constitute said elastic means.

3. A device according to claim 1, having said package-engaging end formed by a hardened steel pin, said pin being cranked to define said nose portion and formed on said outer side with a notch defining said tape guide.

4. A device according to claim 1, in which said member is readily removable from said support to permit interchangeability.

5. A flyer for use in winding packages of a flat tape such as synthetic plastic tape or the like including a finger, a spindle pivotally supporting said finger and a coiled spring encircling said spindle and applying inward bias to said finger, said finger having a package-engaging end and which has on its outer surface a tape guide means for controlling lateral movement of said tape of a given width and said member having on its inner surface directly opposite said tape guide means, an inwardly projecting nose portion, means for causing said nose portion to engage the surface of said package over a width less than the said given width of said tape guide, elastic means for permitting said package-engaging end of said finger to be elastically distorted in a direction axial of said package in relation to said spindle by a distance equal to at least half the said width of said tape guide.

6. A device according to claim 5, in which said finger has a body formed as a moulding of plastic and having a slot at its end for fitting over and gripping said spindle.

7. A method of substantially eliminating circumferential ridges during winding of a flat tape onto the package with a flyer which moves, relative to the surface of the package, both circumferentially thereabout and axially therealong, comprising the steps of: bringing the tape to the package by moving the flyer relative to the tape to establish relative rotational and relative axial movement between the package and a tape guide means on the flyer, sensing grooves between ridges on a partially wound tape and delaying the said axial movement of the tape guide means until after additional turns of tape have sul) stantlally filled a. groove up to the level of its adj acent ridges.

ouilz

Claims

1. A device for use in winding packages of a flat tape such as synthetic plastic tape or the like including a member for controlling the lay of the tape on to the surface of the package and a support for said member, said member having a packageengaging end which has on its outer surfaCe at said end a tape guide means for controlling lateral movement of said tape of a given width and said member having on its inner surface directly opposite said tape guide means, an inwardly projecting nose portion, means for causing said nose portion to engage the surface of said package over a width less than said given width of said tape guide, elastic means for permitting said packageengaging end of said member to be displaced elastically in a direction axial of said package in relation to said support by a distance equal to at least half the said width of said tape guide.

2. A device according to claim 1, in which said member itself is sufficiently resilient to permit said elastic displacement and hence constitute said elastic means.

7. A method of substantially eliminating circumferential ridges during winding of a flat tape onto the package with a flyer which moves, relative to the surface of the package, both circumferentially thereabout and axially therealong, comprising the steps of: bringing the tape to the package by moving the flyer relative to the tape to establish relative rotational and relative axial movement between the package and a tape guide means on the flyer, sensing grooves between ridges on a partially wound tape and delaying the said axial movement of the tape guide means until after additional turns of tape have substantially filled a groove up to the level of its adjacent ridges.